Device for handling steel drums



March 19, 1963 c. H. HOLSCLAW 3, ,8 3

DEVICE FOR HANDLING STEEL DRUMS Filed Sept. 8, 1960 IN VENT 0R. CHARLES H. HOLS'CLAW BY y, AMAM Arm;

3,081,893 DEVICE FOR HANDLlNG STEEL DRUMS Charles H. Holsclaw, 408 N. Willow Road, Evansville 11, End. Filed Sept. 8, 1960, Ser. No. 54,723 8 (Ilaims. (Cl. 214-674) The present invention relates to fixtures for facilitating the transporting and handling of shipping drums.

It is a primary object of this invention to provide an improved fixture for embracing a loaded shipping drum and moving the same from place to place by a lift truck or the like. It is a related object to provide a fixture which is of a light, simple construction, easily attached and detached, but which is, nevertheless more secure than elaborate prior art fixtures intended for the same purpose. It is more particularly an object of the invention to provide a transport fixture for shipping drums which fixture is constructed to be self-tightening, with the application of the load serving to apply a novel pinching action against the side walls of the drum for precluding slippage during transportation of the drum by a lift truck.

It is a more detailed object of this invention to provide a drum transport fixture which makes novel use of a reinforcing bead on the drum, with preliminary engagement by the lift truck serving to slide the fixture along the drum more or less freely into firm seated contact with the reinforcing bead after which no further sliding can take place. Because of this firm seating and the subsequent pinching action as the weight is applied, the present fixture provides for the safe handling of drums even when little care or attention is employed by the operator who secures the fixture to a shipping drum. The result is that a perfect safety record is possible even where drums weighing up to one thousand pounds must be handled in quick succession.

It is another object of this invention to provide a transport fixture for a shipping drum which fixture is normally attached to the drum but need not be clamped tightly thereto. On the contrary, a simple form of screw clamp is provided having a wing not or the like which may be lightly spun into closed position and released with a light spin in the opposite direction. In this connect-ion, the fixture is shaped or otherwise adapted to prevent the screw clamp from slipping out of position after the nut is spun into the closed position. Consequently, it is an object to provide a fixture for a shipping drum which may be switched from drum to drum in a few seconds. Moreover, since the fixture is of light, essentially one piece construction, there is no burden upon the lift truck operator or other personnel who may be required to handle many hundreds of drums during the course of a working day. The result is a substantial improvement in handling eificiency and a lower handling cost per drum.

it is still another object of the invention to provide a transport fixture which does not rely upon tight peripheral clamping and therefore does not scrape or otherwise mar the finish or any lithographed printing on the surface of the drum even when it is loaded with heavy material.

It is another object of the invention to provide a transport fixture which may be constructed at a fraction of the cost of prior devices intended for the same purpose, thus reducing the cost of equipping a drum handling yard. Moreover, the fixture is extremely compact and lies largely within the confines of reinforcing beads formed on the drum. 'Therefore, the fixture does not interfere with stacking when left in position on the drum.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description when taken with the accompanying drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective View of a lift truck utilizing a transport and handling fixture which is made in accord- 3,581,893 Patented Mar. 19, 1963 ance with this invention for moving a loaded shipping drum;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the tnansport and handling fixture, per se;

FIGS. 3-5 are fragmentary side views showing by stop motion, the manner in which the fixture is raised first to abut with a reinforcing bead and then :to exert a self-tightening grip by twisting and pinching the shipping drum;

FIG. 6 is a side View taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 2 showing a first embodiment of an arrangement for holding a locking screw in position when the fixture is clamped about the drum;

FIG. 7 is a side view showing a second embodiment of an arrangement for holding a locking screw in position;

FIG. 8 is an end view of FIG. 7 taken along line 8-8 thereof; and

PEG. 9 is a side view showing another embodiment of the locking arrangement.

While the invention has been described in connection with certain embodiments, it is to be understood that it is not thereby intended to limit the invention to such embodiments, but is on the other hand intended to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternative constructions falling within the spirit and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.

As will be apparent from an inspection of FIGURE 1, an exemplary transport and handling fixture 20 which is made in accordance with this invention is adapted to slip over the outside of a large metal shipping drum 21 having circumferential reinforcing beads 22 thereon. Attached to the fixture are a pair of radially extending, oppositely disposed brackets 23, 24 having a length which is sufiicient to engage the arms 25, 26 of a lift truck 27. After the fixture is placed about a drum, the lift truck may exert an upward force upon the brackets that are formed on the fixture, thereby lifting the drum for transportation from place to place.

In accordance with one aspect of this invention, the transport and handling fixture includes a continuous strip of metal of relatively narrow width and gauge so that upon application of upward force the strip slides upwardly into abutment with a reinforcing bead following which the metal twists and locks into position by pinching against the side Walls of the drum. As best shown in FIG. 2, the fixture 29 includes a strip 28 preferably of steel and of light weight, one piece construction long enough to surround and embrace the loading drum between a pair of beads. For the purpose of joining the ends, a locking screw 29 is pivotally attached to one end of the strip at a pivot 30. A mating bifurcated tip 31 is integrally formed in the other end of the strip, by slotting and bending the strip at 32, thereby defining an outwardly facing opening. To bridge the opening a wing nut 33 is provided. The pivot 30 permits the screw to be swung between the bifur cations following which a spin of the wing nut seats the nut to hold the ends of the strip in secure engagement. Preferably only a light twisting force is applied to the nut so that the fixture is free to slide upwardly into abutment with the head to apply a self-tightening grip to the drum when the brackets are lifted. To release the ends of the strip, the nut 33 is given a reverse spin and the locking screw 29 is swung away from the opening, thus allowing the fixture to be expanded and slipped off the drum.

In carrying out the invention, each bracket is preferably given a slightly downward slant to increase the pinching action at the top of the fixture. In one embodiment, it was found that there were good results when this downward slant, shown at "a" in FIG. 2, was approximately 2 although a larger angle, say from 2 to 10 may be used.

To facilitate understanding the pinching action, reference is made to the stop motion views, FIGS. 3-5 inclusive. As shown in FIG. 3, the fixture slides over the cylindrical surface of the drum as arm 26 of the lift truck moves the bracket 23 upward. When the fixture engages the reinforcing bead 22, as in FIG. 4, further upward motion is stopped. Responsive to continued upward pressure by the lift truck arm 26, the strip 23 twists, thereby deflecting the upper edge of the strip inwardly and pulling the lower edge outwardly to exert an inward pinching force, as shown in FIG. 5. An advantage of this fixture is that the pinching grip on the drum is self-tightening and is in accordance with the weight of the load.

In the practice of this invention, means are provided for joining the ends of the continuous strip to prevent the screw from inadvertently swinging outwardly into its disengaged position. As shown in FIG. 6, a first embodiment of this locking means includes a wedge-shaped block 40 fastened to the bifurcated tip position to urge the locking screw 29 inwardly toward the drum, thus keeping it from slipping out of position after winged nut 33 is spun home. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the locking means is in the form of a hook 41 which is pivotally mounted on the bifurcated section at a pivot 42 to hold the locking screw fully engaged. Preferably, the end of the hook is given profile which produces a cam action relative to the locking screw so that the hook automatically swings first to the left and then to the right (as viewed in FIG. 8) around the screw when it is dropped into position. To swing the locking screw away from the opening, the hook is manually swung into its out-of-the-way position.

In accordance with one of the detailed aspects of the invention, means are provided for mating the ends of the fixture so that they seat against one another. Thus as shown in FIG. 9 one end of the strip is bent to form a hook 43 while the other is bent to provide a bottoming stop which engages and seats within the hook. The curved surface at 43 serves the additional purpose of providing clearance to swing the locking screw into and out of position. Some draft may be provided at 45 for performing a function similar to that of the wedge 46 previously referred to. The construction shown in FIG. 9 because of the seated engagement between the ends of the strip, tends to limit the degree to which the fixture can be tightened in place. This stop means 43, 44 insures that the strip will remain slidable on a standard sized drum even though the wing nut 33 is turned tight.

It will be seen therefore, that the above device provides an extremely simple, low cost fixture which may be switched from drum to drum quickly and easily with little or no burden on an operator who handles many hundreds of drums a day. Further, the self-tightening grip which results from the pinching action, affords an extremely safe fixture, even when the locking screw is not tightened completely. Because of this pinching action, the fixture affords complete safety with weights up to one thousand pounds even though little care or attention is paid by the operator who secures the fixture to the drum. Moreover, since the fixture does not rely upon tight peripheral clamping, the initial upward sliding motion does not scrape or mar the surface of the drum.

While the fixture is intended primarily for use as a transport device secured above the center of gravity and adjacent the upper one of the two conventional beads, it will be apparent that when desired the device may be usefully employed for pouring of liquids, with only a limited amount of torque being required to tip the drum about its supporting axis. That is, the pivot point is just high enough to hold the drum always upright in the fork lift truck and at the same time low enough to tilt easily and safely.

Moreover, since the outside diameter of the fixture lies within the confines of the reinforcing bead and since the brackets are small and of light construction, the presence of the fixture does not interfere with stacking of the drums, and may be left in place throughout several steps while transporting or handling drums. In view of the low cost of each fixture, the expense of equipping a drum handling yard and of leaving the fixtures in place While in the yard is not excessive, thus giving a substantially lower handling cost per drum. Quite obviously, those skilled in the art will readily perceive many other ways in which the fixture may be used to handle shipping drums.

1 claim as my invention:

1. A transport fixture for handling large heavy metal shipping drums, each of said drrurns having a plurality of spaced reinforcing beads thereon, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal shaped to be placed around said drum between adjacent reinforcing heads, a pair of radially projecting brackets diametrically spaced on the strip, means for joining the ends of said strip to define a diameter which is equal to the diameter of said drum but less than the diameter of said reinforcing bead so that when the fixture is lightly clamped to said drum the fixture is free to slide into abutment with said head, the strip being of narrow width substantially less than the spacing between the beads so that con tinuous application of lifting force against the brackets is effective to slide the strip upwardly from the center of gravity and into engagement with one of said beads followed by localized twisting of the strip in the vicinity of the brackets to apply a pinching action against the side wall of said drum.

2. A fixture for handling drums having at least one circumferential reinforcing bead thereon, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal shaped to surround a shipping drum below said head, a pair of radially and downwardly projecting brackets diametrically spaced and attached to said strip, means for joining the ends of said strip to define a diameter which is equal to the diameter of said drum but less than the diameter of said reinforcing bead so that when the fixture is lightly clamped on said drum the fixture is free to slide upwardly into abutment with said bead and to lock into position by twisting in the vicinity of the brackets and pinching said drum when lifting forces are applied against the brackets.

3. A fixture for adapting a heavy metal shipping drum to be handled by lift trucks, said drum having at least one circumferential reinforcing bead thereon, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal which is adapted to surround and embrace said drum below said reinforcing bead, a pair of radially projecting brackets diametrically spaced on said strip, said brackets having a length suflicient to engage the arms of said lift trucks when said fixture is in position about said drum, means for joining the ends of said strip to define a diameter which allows said fixture to slide upwardly on said drum into engagement with said reinforcing bead, so that when the fixture is lightly clamped to said drum, the fixture slides upwardly into abutment with said head and thereafter twist in the vicinity of said bracket to apply a pinching action against the side Wall of said drum when said brackets are lifted by the fork of said truck.

4. A fixture for handling large heavy drums having at least one reinforcing bead thereon, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal shaped to be placed around said drum below said head, a pair of radially extending brackets diametrically spaced on said strip, the ends of said strip being bent to project outwardly from said drum, one of said ends being shaped to provide a bifurcated section defining an opening facing outwardly from said drum, means comprising a locking screw pivotally mounted on the other end of said strip and positioned to be swung into said opening, means including a nut threaded on said screw for bridging the ends of said strip when said nut is spun home, said strip defining a diameter which is equal'to the diameter of said drum but less than the diameter of said head so that said strip twists in the vicinity of said brackets and locks into position by pinching said drum when said brackets are lifted, and means on said bifurcated section for preventing said locking screw from slipping out of said opening when said nut is spun home.

5. A fixture for handling heavy drums having a reinforcing bead therein, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal shaped to be placed around said drum below said bead, a pair of radially extending brackets diametrically spaced on said strip, the ends of said strip being bent to project outwardly from said drum, one of said ends being shaped to provide a bifurcated sec tion defining an opening facing outwardly from said drum, means comprising a locking screw pivotally mounted on the other end of said strip and positioned to be swung into said opening, means including a nut threaded on said screw for joining the ends of said strip when said nut is spun home, said strip defining a diameter which is equal to the diameter of said drum but less than the diameter of said bead so that said strip twists in the vicinity of said brackets and locks into position by pinching said drum when said brackets are lifted, and means including a hook pivotally mounted on said bifurcated section for preventing said screw from slipping out of said opening when said nut is spun home.

6. A fixture for handling large heavy drums having at least one reinforcing bead thereon, said fixture comprising a continuous flexible strip of metal shaped to be placed around said drum below said bead, a pair of radially extending brackets diametrically spaced on said strip, the ends of said strip being bent to project outwardly from said drum, the outer extremities of said projecting ends being bent inwardly toward each other to provide a mating seating, at least one of said ends being shaped to provide a bifurcated section defining an opening facing outwardly from said drum, means comprising a locking screw pivotally mounted on the other end of said strip and positioned to be swung into said opening, means including a nut threaded on said screw for joining the ends of said strip when said nut is spun home, said strip defining a diameter which is greater than the diameter of said drum but less than the diameter of said bead, so that said strip twists in the vicinity of said brackets and locks into position by pinching said drum when said brackets are lifted.

7. A transport fixture for handling large, heavy loaded shipping drums of the type having a pair of annular reinforcing beads extending about the body thereof and spaced from one another, said fixture comprising a single strip of metal curved into circular shape for placing around said drum between said reinforcing heads, a pair of radially projecting brackets diametrically spaced on the strip, the ends of the strip projecting radially outward, readily disengageable clamping means for clamping the ends of the strip together so that the diameter of the strip is substantially equal to the diameter of the drum body but less than the outer diameter of the bead and the strip having a narrow width substantially less than the spacing between the beads thereby to insure that when the brackets are engaged by a lift fork or the like the weight of the drum will cause the same to be drawn downwardly relative to the strip so that the strip seats on the bead in a position substantially oflset from the center of gravity, said strip being flexible so that localized twisting occurs adjacent said brackets under the weight of said drum which causes the strip to securely grip the drum.

8. A transport fixture for handling large, heavy metal shipping drums of the type having at least one reinforcing annular bead extending about the body thereof and offset from the center of gravity, said fixture comprising a single strip of metal curved into circular shape for placing around said drum below said reinforcing bead, a pair of radially projecting brackets diametrically spaced on the strip and extending outward to span the distance between the prongs of a fork-type lift truck, the ends of the strip projecting radially outward, readily disengageable clamping means for clamping the ends of the strip together, at least one of the ends being formed into a bottoming stop which engages the opposite end as the clamping means is tightened thereby to define a minimum diameter for the strip which is substantially equal to the diameter of the drum body but less than the outer diameter of the bead to insure that when the brackets are engaged by the lift truck the weight of the drum will cause the same to be drawn downwardly relative to the strip so that the strip seats on the bead for stable transport, said strip being flexible so that localized twisting occurs adjacent said brackets under the weight of said drum which causes the strip to securely grip the drum.

References fitted in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,978,195 Haas Oct. 23, 1934 2,042,263 La Valley May 26, 1936 2,725,208 Bova Nov. 29, 1955 2,826,322 Posehn Mar. 11, 1958 2,832,630 Sterling Apr. 29, 1958 2,960,785 Kies Nov, 22, 1960 

1. A TRANSPORT FIXTURE FOR HANDLING LARGE HEAVY METAL SHIPPING DRUMS, EACH OF SAID DRUMS HAVING A PLURALITY OF SPACED REINFORCING BEADS THEREON, SAID FIXTURE COMPRISING A CONTINUOUS FLEXIBLE STRIP OF METAL SHAPED TO BE PLACED AROUND SAID DRUM BETWEEN ADJACENT REINFORCING BEADS, A PAIR OF RADIALLY PROJECTING BRACKETS DIAMETRICALLY SPACED ON THE STRIP, MEANS FOR JOINING THE ENDS OF SAID STRIP TO DEFINE A DIAMETER WHICH IS EQUAL TO THE DIAMETER OF SAID DRUM BUT LESS THAN THE DIAMETER OF SAID REINFORCING BEAD SO THAT WHEN THE FIXTURE IS LIGHTLY CLAMPED TO SAID DRUM THE FIXTURE IS FREE TO SLIDE INTO ABUTMENT WITH SAID BEAD, THE STRIP BEING OF NARROW WIDTH SUBSTANTIALLY LESS THAN THE SPACING BETWEEN THE BEADS SO THAT CONTINUOUS APPLICATION OF LIFTING FORCE AGAINST THE BRACKETS IS EFFECTIVE TO SLIDE THE STRIP UPWARDLY FROM THE CENTER OF GRAVITY AND INTO ENGAGEMENT WITH ONE OF SAID BEADS FOLLOWED BY LOCALIZED TWISTING OF THE STRIP IN THE VICINITY OF THE BRACKETS TO APPLY A PINCHING ACTION AGAINST THE SIDE WALL OF SAID DRUM. 